Submission

DRAFT

Teamsters Canada
Halifax, Nova Scotia

Teamsters Canada is a labour organization with more than 125,000 members. Teamsters Canada represents workers in many sectors including all areas of transport (air, rail, road and ports), retail, motion picture, brewery & soft drink, construction, dairy, and warehousing. Teamsters Canada is affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which has 1,500,000 members across North America.

Teamsters Canada welcomes the opportunity to appear to discuss Part iii of the Canada Labour Code (Part iii).

In a general way, Part iii reflects the social contract. Business does business within a framework and constraints of fairness and equity; and Part iii gives protection to workers from an unbridled labour market. Part iii is good for workers, but let us not forget its importance to business.

Part iii levels the playing field ensuring that all employers must provide a threshold of conditions and standards for employees. For the economy, Part iii acts as a barrier to entry for enterprises that cannot meet the productivity base demanded by compliance with the Code. Poor businesses are kept out of business allowing entry to and participation in the marketplace by more enterprises that are successful. Part iii is one of the foundations to Canada's prosperity agenda.

Part iii is not a substitution for collective bargaining. Let us not be confused, if a union member has a benefit it is through the collective efforts, costs and sacrifice of members. The Rand Formula prevents free riders from enjoying the benefits of unions without paying for it. Part iii should not create statutory free riders. Non-union workers who want all the benefits of a union have recourse other than the Code; sign a card.

Part iii is a very blunt instrument to deal with the self-employed. It is also a very narrow focus to examine reasons why if an employee has recourse to Part iii, so should the self-employed. Why not ask, "If the self-employed have access to tax deductions and advantages, why shouldn't employees." That one would not fly at Finance. This investigations misses the obvious, some people want to be self-employed and don't want to be treated as employees. It ignores the sad fact; some people want to be employees and are treated as self-employed.

The Government could address this issue in the most forthright way. Change the definitions under the Canada Labour Code Part i and allow more workers to belong to unions; workers who are forced to exclude themselves from the safeguards of Part iii.

The issue of self-employed workers, the tax realities of what category you are in or what section of the laws should apply should be subject of a wider review. Employers using the 'consultant' or 'independent' route to escape unionization or Part iii should end. A wide range of issues come to mind, but is not subject to this review.

There are also wider issues.

Part iii and the Code have responsibilities, some of which are delegated to other Departments. The delegation does not remove Parliamentary direction set by the Code and the Regulations. The Department of Labour must use it oversight of the Code to the exercise of its delegated authority by other Departments. If the Labour Code does not permit a conduct, then subbing it of to another Department doesn't grant a blanket exclusion from Part iii or the Code.

The entire changing workplace, demographics and face of labour means adaptation of the labour market in an ongoing basis. There are comments that Part iii is outdated because it reflects an old workplace that no longer reflect the reality for today's employers and employees. We disagree. Workplace changes are often made to get around labour law and labour standards, to maximize tax advantage, and to transfer the risk and cost of employment from the employer to the employee.

A good Code is fair, effective, and good for productivity; it is good for the country, workers and business. Let us work together to make the Code strong, effective and adaptive.